In my daily capacity as a Media Assassin and Government Legislation Analyst, I'm increasingly amazed by the diet most people accept when consuming news

News is food for your brain. It determines many of our daily actions and long term strategies and goals. Left unchecked, it has the potential to turn a divinely designed machine into an obese unproductive couch potato merely awaiting its next feeding.

When asked, I wager most would scoff at the idea of consuming our daily news from McDonalds or Pizza Hut.

Yet hundreds of millions are content with accepting the frothy mix that is controlled and served by FaceBook's News Faucet. Read this article, because it shows you the illusion FB conjures that you are in control of your news diet.

I'm sure the same holds true for twitter and other social networks that distribute news

Instead of eating a Big Mac that is baked by someone else, I prefer to hit the salad bar. That's the place where I get to make my own salad, see all the lovely bits that are in my bowl and pick and choose which pieces of lettuce I do or don't want to fish out with my fork.

Anyone can do this by using RSS news feeds. They've been around for close to a decade, no company owns the technology and they are available from mainstream organizations and individuals alike.

Just like the salad bar, you need to put a little work into picking your own ingredients, and filling up your bowl. But it's also all you can eat! And if you want to dump chocolate sauce over your nicoise, that's entirely your choice and you can remove it just as easily.

The salad bowl has always been the problem. Google reader gives you the ingredients with no easy way to toss the salad.